Explain feature in Chrome Bookmark

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1

Hi,

I would be great to have the explain feature available in the Chrome extension/ bookmark. I use that 99% of the time when reading on Readlang. I find the explanation, second paragraph, generated by the AI in context extremely useful. Any way to use that other then importing it to Readlang first? Would be great to have it in the extension.

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Good suggestion. The Chrome extension has been falling behind the main readlang.com reading experience. I did play around with this but didn’t come up with a UI I was totally happy with. Should take another crack at it!

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I started reading books on the main website. But I still use Reader Readwise for RSS feeds, saving down stuff from the internet, etc So being able to use Readlang on top of that is a great option!

Where can I learn more about how the translation works? For example, when I click on a word and I get the green word on top, is that done by the AI or the dictionary? Does it take into account the context?

Thanks!
Marius

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I should write a blog post about this. Basically it works like this:

  • Free plan (and all plans previous to this year): The highlighted word/phrase is translated by Google Translate with no surrounding context taken into account.
  • Premium plan with “Context aware translations” enabled (see Settings page): The highlighted word/phrase is translated using ChatGPT 4o-mini and takes the whole sentence into account to provide a more appropriate translation given the context.
  • Premium Plus with “Context aware translations” enabled: Same as above but uses the full ChatGPT 4o model, which provides even more accurate results, particularly for less commonly spoken languages.
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That’s awesome!

I found that reading with ChatGPT 4o model takes my entire reading experience to another level. It’s not just that it’s able to pick the right word. It’s that it’s able to provide historical context. It understands metaphors and why they are used. It shows a deep historical and literary knowledge. It’s like being tutored by a literary critic. A lot of people miss this about Gen AI.

I used Chat GPT in the past when reading but this is so much more convenient. It’s right there. And it has already read the text without me having to do anything.

Just curious, what is the text that the GenAI read when I select a word? If I have a 200,000 words book, does it read the whole thing, or just a number of words before and after the word I highlight?

Also, do you mind sharing the prompt that ChatGPT is being asked? Just out of curiosity. It’s a very good prompt.

One thing I would like to use it more for is just reading english. RIght now the way I use that is with the explanation given in English. But would be great to have a synonim in english when clicking on a word. English is my strongest language and I would prefer to not have the word translated into another language. That would also be a very good option to have when one gets strong in a foreign language. Let’s say I already have a 20,000 vocabulary in a language I’m learning. I can probably get by with explanations in that language. So, a english-english, spanish-spanish, etc option would take the reading experience to the next level.

Reading like this is trully transformational. More people should know about this.

I would recommend extending the marketing/ story/ About Readlang. This is not just a tool for language learners. This is a tool for reading at a higher level. Period. I’m using this to read old or difficult texts in my native language.

There’s a few more things that could be explored to enhance the capabilities of the tool to make it even better for reading in one’s native language. Translation in the target language is one. But how about another tab that would have a slightly different purpose. I’m thinking something similar to a commentary. Enlarge the context and prompt to explain a paragraph, or a few paragraphs or even a chapter vs a word.

The market for just readers is exponentially higher than language lerners and this tool has such a great potential for everyone. I just wish I had this in college!

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Great to hear that this is working well for you!

At the risk of divulging trade secrets :-)… If you are talking about the Explain feature, the AI gets to read the single sentence that the word you click on appears in, the same sentence that is added to the saved card as context. The prompt is quite simple and short. This is an example of the prompt that Readlang uses when explaining the Spanish word “hola” in English within the context sentence “Hola, buenas tardes.”:

> Hola, buenas tardes.

What does the Spanish word "Hola" mean in English? Explain the usual meaning as well as the meaning in this context.

I agree this would be interesting to try, but I’m afraid it’s not my main focus for the time being.